Paper Topic:

Assistive Medical Devices

Running head : MEDICAL ASSISTIVE DEVICE FOR THE DEAF

Cochlear Implant : a Medical Assistive Device for the Deaf (Name of Author (Name of Affiliation (Name of Professor (Course /Subject

Cochlear Implant : a Medical Assistive Device for the Deaf

Technology has dramatically changed the lives of the hard-of-hearing by making it possible to produce lightweight , sensitive hearing aids . But what of the profoundly deaf who have very little or no hearing ability and who do not benefit fully from wearing hearing aids

Because hearings aids merely amplify sound , they are no use to people

whose auditory sensors which convert sound into messages to the brain have been destroyed or damaged by accident or disease

Deafness

Deafness is the complete loss of ability to hear from one or both ears to detect or understand sounds . The degree of hearing impairment is measured by the amount of loss in decibels (db . It can be mild (a loss of 25 up to 40 db , moderate (40-70 db , severe (70-90 db loss ) and profound (over 90 db loss (HEAR , 2006

Hearing loss is generally categorized as conductive or sensorineural Conductive hearing loss occurs when there is interference of any kind in the transmission of sound from the outer and middle ear to the inner ear . Fortunately , this type of hearing problem is often medically or surgically corrected . Sensorineural hearing loss is due to a damage to the hair cells of the cochlea in the inner ear or the auditory nerve fibers . Unfortunately , in this type , hearing loss is permanent and irreversible (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities , 2004

Cochlear Implant

According to Loizou (1998 , a cochlear implant device is a medical assistive implantable that was designed for people who receive little or no benefit from hearing aids to detect sound and recognize speech Unlike a hearing aid that acoustically amplifies sound and directs it into your ear canal , cochlear implants provide electrical signals directly into the auditory nerve by means of multiple electrodes imbedded into the cochlea

How a Cochlear Implant Works

A cochlear implant has four parts : 1 ) a microphone that picks up sounds and converts them to electrical signals 2 ) a speech processor that digitalizes the sounds collected by the microphone into coded signals that the device can recognize 3 ) the external coil , that converts the coded signals into electrical impulses and electromagnetically transmits them into 4 ) the multiple electrodes inserted into the cochlea . The electrodes send electrical messages directly to the auditory nerve , bypassing the damaged or absent hairs in the cochlea These electrical impulses are sent to the brain , which interprets the signals as a form of hearing (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Diss , 2007

Risks Associated with the Device

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Diss (2004 , opting for cochlear implant carries risks for the implantee such as it destroys any residual acoustic hearing in the implanted ear . So if operation fails they lose their residual hearing and cannot go back to even using...

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